


Mother

by limey_limey



Series: Family Matters [2]
Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: F/F, LOTS of Family Fluff, Manipulation, Panic Attacks, Shadow Weaver | Light Spinner (She-Ra)'s A+ Parenting, emotional blackmail, everybody's working on their stuff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-24
Updated: 2020-12-28
Packaged: 2021-03-10 22:35:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 22,920
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28284825
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/limey_limey/pseuds/limey_limey
Summary: **SEQUEL TO CHILD**18 months on and everything seemed to be falling into place for the little family of Adora, Catra and Javier.  They should have known that it couldn't last.  There are always shadows waiting.**COMPLETE**
Relationships: Adora/Catra (She-Ra), Bow/Glimmer (She-Ra), Perfuma/Scorpia (She-Ra)
Series: Family Matters [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2067621
Comments: 64
Kudos: 126





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So I couldn't leave the world of Child alone and this demanded I ignore all my other WIPs and get it done.  
> 

Blue eyes roamed over the ugliest Christmas tree she had ever seen. Half of the needles were either brown or absent altogether, the middle third bald down to the trunk. The top and bottom were lush and green, almost giving it the look of a ballerina in a tutu, yet still hideous. Why was she looking at the world’s most messed up evergreen? Her eyes went back to the boy and his mother who were standing either side of it and beaming from ear to ear as though they had stumbled upon a treasure in the field of regular trees. Adora realised that she was obviously missing something.

“Ok guys, why are we so excited about THIS tree?” Her eyes flicked between the two feline grins.

“It’s like Milog, Mom. That’s why.” Javier’s explanation was doing little alleviate her confusion.

“I think she’s still lost, Beastie. Try again.” Catra’s chuckle made Adora’s heart swell as she remembered that this was her family. These two puzzling, boisterous people were hers and they were perfect.

Javier bit his lip and thought about how to put it into words. They hadn’t performed this Christmas ritual last year, everybody still too broken and fragile. Catra had barely been able to be around anyone but them, and Javier was content just to be home and safe. Now he was a tall eight year old boy who was picking out the first tree that they would take home as a family of three, it was obviously important to him that Adora be just as excited as they were.

“So, you know how we love Melog and we fixed him because he was broken but he could still be loved?” Adora nodded, dawning understanding filling her. “Well, we always pick the tree that nobody would want so that it gets to fulfil its destiny. Otherwise they’ll just wood chip it and then it won’t get to be a part of Christmas.” He looked very pleased with his explanation and Adora couldn’t help but be proud of how grown up he was becoming. 

“Well, in that case we have to take it home. Nobody will appreciate its unique beauty like us.” Javier’s whoop of happiness was so loud that several other shoppers in the tree lot flinched or turned to glare. Catra responded by sticking her tongue out at them and encouraging the boy to do the same. Adora laughed at their antics and put her hand out for a high five from her son.

A burly goat man wended his way through the rows of trees, hands hooked into the pockets of his puffy coat, clearly sensing a sale as he watched the group’s antics with a well practiced eye. Unable to hear their words, he had assumed their antics around the mulching tree were just that. They were clearly interested in making a purchase, the cat eared woman had caught his eye and beckoned him over with a slight bob of her head. They must want the tree to her right. He swept towards them, fixing his most charming smile to his face.

“Ladies and little gentleman, how can I help you on this glorious winter day?” He clapped his hands as he spoke.

“Hey, yeah, We’d like to buy this tree, please.” Javier spoke up, pointing at the mangled tree beside him.

“That’s very funny, young man,” he laughed at the child before turning away to address the one that was obviously his mother, if the tail and mismatched eyes were anything to go by. “Now which tree was it you were interested in?” He failed to notice the stormy looks that had crossed the faces of all three.

“Excuse me, I said we would like this tree please.” Javier tried again, remembering what his parents told him about staying polite.

“That’s enough now, sonny, let me just talk to your mother.” It was exactly the wrong thing to say.

“Do not dismiss my son like that,” the words didn’t come from the glowering cat woman, but the blond human. “He has asked you politely, twice, for the tree that we want. You can clearly see that neither of us have corrected him because this is the tree we want. Please do not presume to know otherwise.” Her blue eyes were cool and he felt himself take a step back at the quiet authority in her voice.

“I can only apologise for misunderstanding.” He could feel the sale slipping through his fingers. “I’ll just get it netted up for you.” He scurried off to get that organised before they could tell him to shove his tree.

The goat man disappeared into the temporary forest of green, Catra sniggering once he was out of sight. She looked between her son and Adora and shook her head. “You know he thought I was going to be the problem, right?” She saw Adora colour with a blush and start to lower her head so she reached out a clawed hand to take her’s and pulled her to Catra’s side. She knew why the blond had jumped in to tell the man off, Catra had told her about Prime talking about Javier as ‘son’, and she had stepped in when he had called Javier ‘sonny’. 

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to…” Adora’s voice was small.

“Hey, whatever you’re thinking you need to stop. You’re Javier’s mom too, you have every right to put people in their place.” She brought her hand up and pressed a kiss to her knuckles. “Thank you for caring about the two of us.” The words were too low for the boy to hear, but Adora smiled and they both knew.

“Yeah, you’re both my moms and that guy was being a jack-ass!” Javier young voice made a snigger burst out Catra, before she pulled it back in when she saw the disapproving look coming from the teacher at her side.

“Mind your language there, Beastie.” She shot her eyes sideways and saw Adora looking at her, a pleased expression blooming. “But yeah, he was a jack-ass!” Mother and son laughed at the fondly exasperated look on Adora’s face.

Soon enough the man was back and the tree was reverently fed into a netting sack to hold it safely on the journey home. He offered to carry the tree to the car, it might be beat up but it was a large tree, as neither woman was particularly imposing. The withering glare that the little boy gave him left him taken aback as the cat woman effortlessly hoisted the tree onto one shoulder and marched off with it, leaving her human companion to pay him with a smirk on her face.

He was left staring after the backs of the oddly intimidating family as the tree was hefted onto the roof of the car and the three of them secured it with bungees before driving away. He never liked being near predators. Slapping a smile back onto his face he put the showman back into his walk and sauntered over to a human couple who were cooing over a gorgeous tree. 

The drive home was full of laughing and singing songs. Javier was particularly partial to Dominic the Donkey, everybody giving the ‘hee-haws’ their all. Catra and Adora had never really had Christmas as children, it wasn’t a part of Shadow Weavers plans for them. Adora aways got a present and a new set of clothes, for appearances and because she was the favourite. Catra was just glad that was a day that she could guarantee that she would get fed dinner (Shadow Weaver’s one concession to the animal that lived in her home). Being with Javier at Christmas allowed both women to live out the excitement that they had never known as children. 

Adora had developed a love of the season when she had befriended Glimmer and Bow. They had been horrified when they had asked her what she was doing for her first Christmas at college and she had told them she would stay there and study. The pair had whisked her away and shared their Christmas celebrations with her and from then all she had been a part of their family celebrations, big trees and carols, a stocking on the mantel and brightly wrapped gifts just for her. It had made her realised how much magic her childhood had sucked from her life. This would be the first Christmas with a family of her own and it was bitter sweet that it would be the first real one she would share with Catra after more than twenty years. She reached her hand across the space between them and took Catra’s free hand where it was resting on the her thigh as she drove. The furry hand fit into hers and Catra gave hers a squeeze as they smiled at each other while Javier broke into Jingle Bells from the back seat.

For her part, Catra had fallen in love with Christmas when Javier was born. His first Christmas had been a confusing jumble of laughter and love that she had never known. Scorpia and Entrapta had, by that point, forced their way into her life and helped her build a home with them. It was a little before Entrapta’s big technology breakthrough, and the shared house was small but cosy. The friends, the tree and the cooing baby had been overwhelming in the best way. In the intervening eight years she had done her best to make Javier’s Christmases, greeting card perfect. She didn’t always succeed, but she always tried. This year she would try for Adora too.

The tree market was thirty minutes from Dryl end by the time the trio returned to their apartment they were all more than ready for lunch. Adora and Javier rushed into the building, laughing and tickling each other, disappearing from sight as the automatic doors slid closed behind them. Catra rolled her eyes, realising that she should have asked the other woman to help carry in the tree. It was one thing to carry it the few steps from the lot to the car, another to lift it off of the car and through the building, the damn thing was at least twice as tall as she was.

Untying the bungee cables and throwing them into the back of the car, she stood back and considered how she would manoeuvre it without destroying the building. The absurd thought made her snigger as she scratched her head in thought. Her ears twitched as she caught the sound of heavy footfalls growing closer. She looked up and saw Huntara heading towards her, she appreciated the bigger woman making sure that she wouldn’t be caught off guard. She was big enough to admit that she was still easily startled and reacted violently. Huntara, more than anyone else, seemed to understand the impact of PTSD on her and she appreciated her gruff, no nonsense support. Catra raised her hand from her hair and awkwardly waved at the purple skinned woman as she got closer.

“Looks like you could use a hand.” Catra knew that Adora must have told her, but it was still nice to know that Huntara would lend a hand.

“Yeah, it didn’t seem so big when we were putting it up there.” Both women laughed.

“It gonna fit in your place?” Huntara eyed the tree as it still lay overhanging the vehicle.

“I sure hope so, Javi was adamant we had this one.”

“A freak-tree then?” Javier was a favourite of everyone in the building, more now than ever, and they all knew his peculiarities and loved them.

“Yep.”

“Well, stand back pip-squeak!” Huntara rolled the tree off of the roof and onto her shoulder, balancing it with ease. Catra felt a small twist of jealousy in her gut, no matter how strong she might get there would always be someone stronger. She tamped it down and said thanks instead.

The odd pair made their way into the building, Catra moving to call the elevator while Huntara put the tree down, keeping careful hold so that it wouldn’t topple. From the reception desk Catra could hear Tung Lashor talking too loudly on the phone, making no secret that it was not a work related call. She made eye contact with her companion and jerked her head over in his direction. Huntara was a good head of security but had an odd soft spot for the mouthy Lizard. 

The ding of the elevator arriving drew her attention back and together she and the beefy woman manoeuvred the tree into the small space, the top bending as it touched the roof of the car. Huntara stood back, smiling as the doors of the elevator closed on Catra and the tree. At her apartment it was easy to pull the tree form the bottom and let it slide free and then prop it up in the foyer. The front door was wedged open for her and she could hear carols floating out from the radio and the smell of something wafting out of the kitchen already. They really had been hungry.

“Hey, little help?” Her voice reached into the apartment and pulled out the two people she loved most, popping into the doorway as though they had been waiting just out of sight.

Adora walked out, pressing a kiss to her cheek and they took one end each and carried the cumbersome cargo through the door and towards the stand that they had set up before they left. Javier walked alongside them, giving instructions. He helped them to lower the trunk of the tree into the receptacle and then he secured the screws in the pot so that they were able to let go. As the adults stood back, Catra was relieved that the tree was enough shy of the ceiling that they would be just about able to affix the star. Unsheathing her claws, Catra sliced away the netting bag that held the tree in a tight bundle, allowing the branches and fronds to spring free. Even with its almost completely bare middle, branchless down to the truck, and slightly battered crown, it was still a good looking tree. Where it had needles they were lush and vibrant. 

“What do you think, Beastie?” She balled the shredded rope in her fist.

“It’s great, Mama.” He moved over to Adora and took her hand. “Come on Mommy, we can go and get the decorations! I’ll show you!” 

Catra watched as her son pulled her lover down the hallway and to the storage room. Adora’s face was a picture of bemused fondness as she let herself be led. Catra threw the broken net into the bin and fluffed out the branches a little more before she followed them to the storage room. When she got there, Adora was already surrounded by half a dozen boxes while Javier was clambering up the metal shelves that were safely fastened to the wall, reaching for more and more containers.

“Beastie, remember we’re only doing the tree today!” If she didn’t stop him he’d get every decoration out.

Catra went over and sat down beside Adora on the floor, amongst the boxes. She ran her hand through the blond’s ponytail, letting the strands fall between her fingers before moving to lean her shoulder against the taller woman’s. Adora turned to her and smiled her wide, open smile.

“Hey, Adora.” The words were soft and reverent.

“Hey, Catra.” The just looked at each other, getting lost in being together, until a smaller body barrelled into them, sending them all tumbling among the boxes. 

“Hey moms! Let’s go do the tree!” He picked up one of the boxes, proud that he could finally help like this, and carefully walked out of the room. 

“Yes, boss!” Adora laughed as she called after him, clambering to her feet and watching as Catra unfolded from the floor. The pair stacked several boxes on top of each other before each carefully taking a stack and walking to the living room. 

Soon the three of them were wreathing the tree in brightly coloured tinsel, beads and lights. Adora having had a bright idea and made her way to Javier’s arts and crafts cupboard in the kitchen and pulled out a sheaf of brightly coloured card. While Catra sat Javier on her shoulders so that he could affix baubles to the top third of the tree, now that the bottom was loaded down, Adora made a large cardboard collar that she covered in glitter, sequins and beads. By the time the tree was fully decorated, Adora presented the long strip of card to Javier, whose eyes lit up.

“Wrap it around mom!” He clapped from where he was still perched on his mother’s shoulders.

Adora reached around the tree trunk and brought the two edges of the bid tube together. She pulled a stapler from her pocket and secured together. Now, the tree looked more like a woman in a corset than a ballet dancer, but it was certainly bright and sparkly. Javier was obviously pleased that Adora had helped make the tree have value.

“Now it’s time for the star!” Javier leapt down from his perch and rifled through the nearest box but Adora had already planned something a bit different.

“I thought we could put something a little different on the tree, actually, if that’s ok with you two?” She chewed her lip.

“Sounds great, right Beastie?” Catra could see her uncertainly and wanted to reassure her. Javier had started calling her mom more than a year ago, but sometimes Adora’s uncertainty about her place in the family reared its head, another legal of Shadow Weaver’s terrible parenting.

“Yeah, what’s your idea Mom?” Javier’s mismatched eyes were wide and curious.

“Hang on, I’ll just go get them!” As she dashed off to the study, the feline pair exchanged glances at her strange choice of words.

“What’s she mean?” Whispered the boy.

“I have no idea, but just go with it.” Catra whispered back.

Soon enough Adora returned with her hands hidden behind her back, clearly holding something. She looked bashful as stood in front of them, and cleared her throat as though she were about to make a speech. “So, I though that because this is our first proper Christmas together that having something on the tree that showed we were all part of something now made sense. So I did this,” from behind her back she pulled out Melog and Swift Wind. The two toys had been bound together with glittery pipe cleaners so that their bodies were cuddling each other as though they were in a heart shape. There was enough room between them to sit atop the apex of the tree. “I thought that they could sit on top of the tree and keep an eye on us.” The breath was almost knocked out of her as Javier rushed towards her and wrapped his arms around her, squeezing her tightly with his head nestled against her collar bone.

“That’s the best idea ever, Mom.” Catra’s smiling face, eyes a little misty, peered over her sons head as she gave a thumbs up. “Can you lift me up so I can put them on top?”

The smile that broke out across Adora’s face was blinding as she handed the entwined toys to the child before heaving him to sit on her shoulders. Catra and him made it seem so effortless, but it was harder than it looked with his longer frame. She managed though, years of working out to get stronger arms and shoulders finally paying off. Reverently the little boy placed the toys at the top of the tree.

Then the lights were switched on and the little family stood together in an embraced as they looked at it. Javier decided that they need a photograph, getting them positioned for an unflattering selfie that would take in all of the tree.

Later they sat together on the sofa, drinking hot chocolate and chatting. Javier had been invited by Scorpia to bake cookies and build a gingerbread house with her and Perfuma. He was looking forward to it as he didn’t spend as much time with her as he used to, not since his moms got together. He loved that they were together now but he still loved his aunts.

An alarm beeped in the apartment, and Javier jumped up and ran towards the door, throwing it open and entering the foyer without a backwards glance at the two women sitting on the sofa, bemused looks on their faces. He pushed the up button and waited for the elevator to come and take him to the apartment upstairs. His eyes widened as he realised what he had done, spinning on his heel and running back in through the still wide open door to leap on the woman still on the sofa. He wrapped his arms around both their necks, head wedged between them so that his cheeks touch each of theirs. He hugged tightly, before pressing a quick kiss to each cheek and then dashing back outside just in time for the elevator doors to open. 

“See you later moms!” His shout filled the foyer before it was cut off by the closing doors and he was whisked away to Scorpia’s place.

Two pairs of eyes were still trained on the wide open doorway as the last echoes of Javier’s shout faded. They turned to each other, and first into laughter at the antics of the little boy who meant so much to the pair of them, though for very different reasons. Adora stood up, reluctant to be away from Catra now that they were alone, but needing to close the door. She closed the door, making sure that it would still open for Javier when he came back, and turned back to see Catra with her phone in her hand, texting by the looks of it.

“Bored already?” The words came as she walked back towards her.

Catra looked up before throwing her phone carelessly onto the cushion beside her and reaching out with a clawed hand, sharp points sheathed, waiting for Adora to slide her own into her grasp. Once she felt that smooth skinned hand slide into her own, she leaned back into the cushions of the coach and pulled Adora into her lap. Adora willingly allowed herself to be pulled into Catra’s lap, coming to rest with her knees on either side of the lounging feline’s hips and fingers interlinked. Catra raised her face and Adora brought her down until they met in a slow and languid kiss. 

“Scorpia asked if Javier could make pizza up there as well as the gingerbread houses.” Catra’s soft words filled the space between them as they broke apart. “He won’t be back down for a couple of hours.” Her free hand was working its way up the back of Adora’s shirt, claws gently running across her skin and making the other woman tremble. 

“Oh.” It was a sigh.

“Oh.” Catra purred out and pulled Adora’s hand, still captured in hers, around to her neck, freeing her own hand as Adora hurried both of her in her short hair. Using both hands, Catra cupped Adora’s butt and surged to her feet, causing the blond to squeak and wrap her legs around the shorter woman’s waist, arms folding behind her neck. 

Catra carried her cargo to the bedroom, face being peppered with kisses by the woman in her arms. The first time she had picked Adora up like this the taller woman had been shocked, still thinking of her as the girl she had known rather than the woman she knew. It made Catra feel like a superhero, as though she had developed superpowers. In reality it was just a good diet and a physically demanding job that allowed her cat biology to come into its own. Kicking the door to the bedroom shut behind her, she laid Adora down on the bed, covering her body with her own and placing hot kisses up and down her neck.

Adora melted into the mattress, running her hands down Catra’s neck, teasing at the soft fur there as she slipped one under the collar of her t-shirt. She couldn’t reach enough and pushed the other woman’s shoulders, feeling her immediately pull away to hover over her with a question in her eyes. Wordlessly Adora reached down and pulled at the hem of the t-shirt, pulling it up until the furred stomach was exposed. Taking the hint, a predatory smile covered Catra’s face as she sat back on her heels and peeled the top over her head, leaving her naked from the waist up in the soft light of the bedroom. A cocky eyebrow raised, challenging Adora to match her. Never one to be out done, the blond lent up and pulled off her own shirt and bra in one, less than graceful, motion.

Catra started to laugh at her, but tapered off when she took in the bare flesh below her. Lowering herself back onto the waiting body beneath her, she felt the heat of Adora’s skin travelled into her body as she licked and sucked at the humans jaw, purring as she heard the whine that escaped her as she hit a sensitive spot and began to suckle at it, careful not to pierce the skin with her teeth, her hand cupping the other side of her jaw.

Adora, basking in the feelings that Catra was drawing out of her, ran her hands through the fur on Catra’s back, threading her fingers through it to trace the lines of muscle that banded her torso. She found the scar tissue that cut into her back, hidden from sight but there to the touch. Her fingers moved over it with reverence, making Catra sigh into her skin. 

“Hey.” Catra moved her head so that they could look at each other, love shining in her eyes.

“I love you.” The words never seemed like enough, but at the same time they were everything. 

__________________

Sea Hawk and Mermista twirled past them, the usually nonplused woman giggling merrily. The sound made Catra’s head turn and she caught a wink the exuberant man threw her way which she returned with a bemused shake of her head from where she and Adora were standing at the buffet. Catra had already had her fill and was now just happy to be with her lover as she piled her plate high with a third helping of shrimp. If she didn’t stop soon she’d look like a shrimp before the night was through, Catra snorted at the visual and Adora looked at her questioningly. She leaned forward and bussed a small kiss to the blond’s cheek as an answer and, like the food on her plate she flushed pink.

“You want to dance later?” Adora had noticed her watching the revellers laughing and moving with each other. So far the music had been upbeat pop, causing people to laugh and be silly on the dance floor. Bow kept hoisting Glimmer up onto his shoulder, where she would convulse with laughter before wriggling free.

“Maybe.” Although she was enjoying watching the fun, the idea of being surrounded on all sides by people pressing in on her, the noise that would create and the touches that would inevitably come, made her feel sick. Before the kidnapping, she would have been the first one to drag Adora onto the dance floor and show everybody how it’s done. Not now though, she’d have to make it up to Adora with a dance around the living room when they got home. 

“Ok.” Adora knew that meant ‘no’ but didn’t push it.

Moving away from the long trestle of food, she took Catra’s hand and they made their way back to their table. Catra sat with her back to the wall while Adora sat close beside her so that their thought were touching as she began to tuck into her food. Honestly, her stomach was starting to ache, but the food was too good to miss. When the two of them had received the invitation to Scorpia and Perfuma’s wedding, Adora had been excited to attend it with Catra, they’d never had the opportunity to do anything like it and it was more than living up to her expectations.

Adora found herself looking watching Catra while she chewed. The other woman was watching the crown, ears flicking and a soft smirk on her face as she caught sight of their friends from time to time in the crowd. When a huge, open smile broke out on her face and she raised her hand to wave, Adora didn’t ned to look to know that she had spotted Javier. She did though, turning her eyes to see the little boy with Rook trailing behind him, heading back to the desserts. They’d have to keep an eye on that or they were going to be dealing with more than just a tired boy on their way home. Turning back to Catra, who was now leaning back on her chair, stretching her body as the front legs lifted from the floor and her tail moved lazily to keep her balanced, she let her eyes roam over her for perhaps the hundredth time today.

Catra was dressed in a black tuxedo with a broad gold stripe running the length of both legs from hip to hem, pants ending mid calf and satin foot wraps providing her concession to formality there. Adora had suggested that she might want to wear shoes today, because of all the people and chances of crushed toes, but the withering look that she had received had told her exactly how likely that had been. The jacket she wore finished at the elbows and was so well tailored that it hugged every part of the lithe frame, while still letting her be able to move (but not to dance, or so it seemed), it too was black. It meant that the red shirt that she wore underneath seemed brighter, standing out and drawing Adora’s eyes to the deep V of open buttons that exposed a furred sternum. No tie for the best woman. It had gone without saying when the marriage was announced that Scorpia would pick Catra to stand with her at the ceremony, Catra’s shirt complimenting the scorpioni’s dress and making them look a striking pair at the altar as they had waited for Perfuma to come walking towards them, adorned in her sunshine bright yellow dress.

Thinking of the newly weds, Adora pushed her plate away and looked back into the crowd, able to easily pick the brightly coloured pair, wrapped in each others arms and swaying together, cheek to cheek, even while the music played a fast paced song that had everyone around them jumping around. Once upon a time, Adora would have been fantasising about her and Catra doing all this, but now she was content to be together with the woman she could have so early lost and building a life and a family. A wedding might be nice one day, but they were already promised to each other in every way that counted. 

Her wandering thoughts were brought back by a gentle touch of tail to her bare ankle, wrapping around and tickling the skin. Catra’s eyes had moved from the dance floor and were now watching her while she people watched. There was a soft look in her eyes. Adora couldn’t help but blush under the scrutiny and start to duck her head.

“Hey, Adora.” The familiar phrase, breathed out with such reverence, made her raise her eyes to meet the heterochromatic ones watching her. “Have I told you how beautiful you look today?” She knew she had, but Catra wanted to say it again. It didn’t hurt that it made the blush grow even brighter on her cheeks, working sits way up her ears. Not to mention, it was true; the blond hair fell over her shoulders in waves, loose and free. The blond had had to threaten her if she didn’t stop touching it while they were getting ready. It contrasted nicely with the black backless dress that she was wearing, it was simple and floor length with a long split up one thigh. Catra had already teased her several times by tickling the exposed skin with her tail, but her fingertips itched to touch her. “Would you like to dance?”

“Of course!” Adora couldn’t keep the shock off of her face or the excitement out of her voice, but nodded enthusiastically and reached out her hand to pull Catra out of the chair. They made their way around the table and both of them instinctively searched the room for their son who was dancing wildly with a Double Trouble who had made themselves shrink to the same height, as they watched with smile son their faces, they saw that Rook was also a part of the dancing and it seemed as though DT was trying to teach them actual moves. Good luck with that, Javier may have been athletic and linger like his mother, but he had all the rhythm of a brick. 

Adora started to move towards the dance floor as a new song began to play, but felt a tug on her hand and looked back to see Catra jerk her head towards the main doors to the room. Bemused but trusting the other woman had something in mind, the teacher let herself be pulled out of the ballroom and down a dimly lit hall. Catra seemed to know where she was going a she moved to one of the endless identical doors and pushed it open, revealing a soulless conference room. The light flickered on as they walked through the doors, obviously controlled by some kind of sensor. Music filtered down the hall from where the party was being held, muffled but still clear enough to hear. 

“How did you know this room would be open?” It was obvious that they were in the conference centre of the hotel, located close to the main ballroom as the noise and meetings would never coincide.

“I might have done some reconnaissance earlier while you and Scorpia were getting ready.” It was hard to tell under all the fur but Adora was pretty sure that Catra was blushing.

“That’s so sweet.” Sometimes they teased each other but not today. The words were sincere as was the kiss that she planted in the shorter woman’s lips.

Catra had to tilt her face up to Adora, always an inch or so taller, the blond towered ever her in the heeled shoes she had chosen to weak today. Catra had ribbed her about it when she had seen them, joking that there was no way that she would be able to go the whole day without falling down. So far she had been proved wrong in her assumption and had the added benefit of Adora’s ass looking amazing. It also meant that as the kiss ended, Catra could tuck her head beneath Adora’s chin as she wrapped her arms around her. Then the pair, by some silent agreement of bodies attuned with each other, began to sway to the music bleeding through the walls.

__________________

Tongue clenched between sharp teeth, brow furrowed in concentration, mismatched eyes roamed over the page. A pencil tapped against the paper agitatedly. Why couldn’t he figure out the answer? Javier, rubbed at his face with his free hand and tried to read the equation again. He wrote down all of the numbers and went through the process that his teacher had told him in class. It still didn’t work!

“Argh!” Frustration getting the better of him he let out a load groan and flung the pen across the dining table with a clatter.

Adora looked up from where she was preparing dinner in the kitchen. Javier was usually a level headed little boy who seldom lost his temper, but when he did the Catra came rightist of him. Not wanting that just before dinner, she wiped her hands on a nearby towel and made her way over to him. She stood behind him, hand resting on his shoulder as she leaned down to look at what was melting his brain. She felt him move so that his cheek was pressed against hers, and felt warmth go through her heart.

“More math, huh?” Adora wasn’t his teacher anymore, hadn’t been for a while, but she was still able to help at home. “Have you tried looking at it a different way?” She kept her voice soft and encouraging. 

“Yeah.” His voice was mopey but not belligerent. “I did all the things that the teacher said but I’m stuck.” He turned to look at her and started to batt his eyelashes at her winningly. “You could give me the answers?” She just stared at him and his ears wilted even further than they already were.

“How about, you put that away for now and we’ll try it again tomorrow with fresh eyes.” Javier thought not doing his math homework seemed like a brilliant idea so nodded enthusiastically. “Why not get out some paper and start making a list of people you would like at your birthday party and things that you might want to do?” His birthday was still several months away but there was nothing surer to get his mind off of his woes than the promise of a party.

“Cool!” He thrust the homework back into his back pack and fished around for a blank notebook that he kept for doodling at school. His thin tail swayed gently, reflecting his happier feelings. Adora moved around the table and retrieved his pencil before handing it back to him. 

Adora walked back to the kitchen, needing to finish up the meal prep. She kept a close eye on her son though, pleased to see that his look of concentration was much happier now. She finished cutting the last of the vegetables and put them into a pan on the stove. Wiping down the counters, she no longer had anything to do so joined the boy at the table.

The pair chatted away about his friends and who had and hadn’t invited him to their parties. Javier was a popular little guy so the list of people to come to his celebration was pretty long. It made Adora glad that Catra was about to become a movie star, they’d need her salary to pay for it! Something made Javier stop scribbling ideas and look up at her across the table.

“Is Mama still in the study?” It wasn’t a room she had ever used much, far more Adora’s domain than the actor’s. Adora would sit in their for hours planning her lessons and marking children’s work. It was a nice quiet space in the usually rambunctious apartment.

“Yeah, she’s a little nervous about next week. She’s practicing the information that the studio gave her about the film and how she’ll answer some other questions. I think she said she was going to video chat with Double Trouble because they know more about what they’re doing.” They’d wrapped on the movie that Catra had taken a role in a few months ago and in preparation for its release Catra, DT and Sea Hawk were going on a press tour. It was starting off slow with a couple of fairly local late night talk shows and then gearing up to a world tour for premiers. Neither the teacher or the cat woman were looking forward to being separated for several months, but it was something that had to be done.

“We should tell her she’ll do great over dinner. Maybe we can all play a board game tonight to take her mind off of it?” Javier loved a board game and it sounded like a good idea to take this mother’s mind off of things. “Do you think she’ll be done with all the press stuff by my birthday?” The softly asked question was really asking if she was going to be around for his birthday. Javier had bounced back from the trauma at the citadel almost seamlessly, but he was still tender in places, especially when it came to be separated from his mama. Adora was hoping that she would be enough to fill the void for the six or seven weeks that his mother was going to be away.

“Of course she will, Javi, she wouldn’t miss your ninth birthday for the world!” His smile told her that she had said the right thing.

A weird whirring and clattering noise suddenly filled the room. It sounded like a mixture between a very quiet vacuum cleaner and the sound of a car backfiring. Both the people at the table giggled at the sound, the older of the two shaking her head at the ludicrous device that travelled the edges of the main rooms in all of the apartments in Dryl. The first time that something had been delivered through the pneumatic tubes Adora had been scared out of her skin, the noise, though soft, so oddly discordant that it had frayed her nerves. Now, months late, she was used to it. Each day, the mail would be collected by reception and placed into the tubes for the residents and the commercial entities of the building. When Adora had bemusedly asked Catra why they had such antiquated technology for this, the cat had laughed and admitted that Entrapta had it installed because she loved all tech, even the old kind. Apparently it reminded her that simple could be beautifully efficient.

Javier got up from his seat to retrieve the sheath of papers inside the canister it carried. He had just made it back to the table when Catra appeared and slumped into a chair at his side, throwing her legs out in a careless pose and groaning theatrically. Two sets of eyes looked at her with amusement.

“DT say’s I’ll be lucky if I ever work again after this, what with my flair for tactlessness.” There was a pause and then they all laughed. “What’s in the tube, Beastie?”

The papers were handed to her. She rifled through a couple of bills, some junk and a hand written envelop addressed to Adora. The envelope was brown and unassuming but something about the envelope made her skin crawl and she couldn’t place it. She flung the envelope at Adora who snatched it out of the air before looking at the return address printed on the back of the envelope.

“What’s up? You look like you’ve seen a ghost?” Catra had become better at reading Adora’s mood and there was clearly something going on in that pretty head.

“It’s from the prison.” There was only one person who would be writing to Adora from there.

“Of course it is.” Even now, it was like there past was defined to always break in on their lives, just when they were at their most perfect.

“I don’t have to open it.” Her long fingers fiddled with the edge of the sealed flap nervously.

“You know you do.” Javier was looking worriedly between the two women, feeling the tension in the air and hearing the word ‘prison’ but not understanding the significance. “Hey, Javier, why don’t you go and play in your room for a little while until dinner’s ready?” It sounded like a suggestion, but he knew it wasn’t. His mama never used his proper name unless she really needed him to do something. Quietly he excused himself to his room and shut the door, leaving the two women alone at the table, sitting in silence.

“Open it Adora, let’s not let the bitch control us even in our own home.” Her words were flat, emotionless. That creeping dread she had felt as she handled the envelope now obvious. Some part of her had recognised that spidery scrawl and there was probably some lingering scent on the paper too.

With trembling fingers Adora opened the envelope and pulled out the cream coloured paper from inside. She unfolded the single sheet and laid it out on the table. From across from her, Catra could see that the black ink only covered half of the sheet. Whatever she had to say she had done it sparingly. All the better to manipulate, my dear.

She watched with yellow and blue eyes as Adora’s lips twitched as she read the words on the page. Her eyes darting along the lines as her fingers fidgeted with the edge of the paper. Time passed, too much for so little, but Catra waited for Adora to offer up what she had read. Finally with a stuttering breath, she looked up from where her eyes had been fixed on the paper, eyes looking lost. 

“She wants me to go and visit her in prison.” There was no need to say her name, the demon that raised them was a curse they both carried.

“I can’t tell you what to do Adora.” She wouldn’t.

“She says… she says she’s sick, dying, and wants to make amends.” Adora wanted something from her but Catra could not fathom what it was.

“No amends for me though?” She didn’t want the bitterness to bleed through, certainly didn’t want to be angry at Adora for the sins of the mother, bit it was hard not to feel the resentment bubbling up. 

“I…” Adora’s voice faded before it could say anything.

“Good fucking riddance to the old bitch.” The words burst out, dripping venom and couldn’t feel sorry for it. She saw Adora flinch at the harshness. She took a deep breath and tried to think calmly. “The fact you haven’t said you don’t want to go, means that you do Adora. And that is fine, your relationship with her isn’t mine, but maybe you should talk to Spinerella about it before you make any decisions. I can’t help you with this.” She reached across the table, careful not to touch the letter, and rested her hand on the other woman’s forearm, giving it a squeeze to show her that they were together, even if they couldn’t be on the same side of everything.

The rest of the evening was tense, they did their best to have a nice dinner with Javier and keep things bright and breezy until he went to bed at eight. It was harder after that, the letter from Shadow Weaver was burning a hole in Adora’s pocket, and drawing a very real line between the two of them. Though they sat beside each other on the coach, they weren’t touching and Adora could see Catra clenching her jaw as she stared through the TV that was chattering in front of them. She knew that neither of them could have explained what they had been watching for the last hour. Adora felt lost, and it was a feeling she was all too familiar with and loathed. Resolutely she turned of the TV and then cupped Catra’s cheek, pulling gently so that they were eye to eye.

There was a question in her eyes as Catra looked back at her, waiting. “I will go and speak to Spinerella, and whatever I decide to do, let’s not let her do this to us again.” Adora already knew she would go to see the older woman, she was pretty sure that Catra knew it too, but she would go and speak to her therapist anyway. 

“Ok.” The words were barely audible, but Catra leaned her face into the hand and Adora rubbed her thumb against her fur, both seeking comfort in the other.

That night in bed they lay curled together as they had so many times as children. Their bodies were entwined, arms giving comfort and providing shelter from the fears that had whooshed into their home through the tube. In a week, Catra would need to be on top of her game, ready for an interview that was bound to delve into her well publicised past and survivordom. Adora would help her be strong and she would be strong too. 

__________________

Music pounded in her ears, making them twitch as she lashed out at the heavy bag she had brought out of the storage room. Blow after blow made it dance and sway as she released her frustration and anxiety onto the leather. Her hands were wrapped, she was no fool and didn’t want to risk a popped knuckle. She was also careful to keep her claws sheathed, she’d learnt her lesson about that when she had had to replace her punch bag one too many times. 

Following the beat of the song blaring in her ears she lost herself in the repetitive motion of punching the bag, hit after hit letting her mind move through what was bothering her until she was nothing but the base in her ears, the feel of her muscles burning and the sensation of contact. Over and over again.

Her mind began to wonder and as the strain began to take its toll of her previously damaged shoulder. As the muscle began to ache dully, she was reminded of the frustration of the PT sessions that followed her rescue from the citadel… 

Laying on the floor, panting, tears running down her face, Catra punched at the padding that covered it. Sweat was matting her fur, making it cling to her body and itch, combining with the constant crawling feeling that the last of the drugs in her system left behind. There was no part of her body that she didn’t hate. Her own panting filled her ears. She wasn’t alone in the room but she may as well have been, locked inside her own pain. The more she tried the less progress it felt like she was making and the anger and self loathing increased.

When she had first been released from the hospital after a gruelling two weeks of small surgeries, IV antibiotics and psych evaluations, all she had wanted to do was hide in her bedroom and just hold Javier. Her family had allowed that for exactly one day before they realised that if they let her dig in, they would never be able to pull her out of a spiral of depression. They had coaxed her out and with gentle pressure, got her to eat, get dressed in clothes she picked for herself and wander around the building - their concession had been that she do it when most of the staff of the offices were already home. She had limped slowly around the place, alone or with Javier for days. It had helped.

Scorpia and Adora had been there for her when she needed them. The latter fighting against her natural instinct to push Catra to do better and then swoop in when the younger woman inevitably broke. Instead she stood back, lending a supporting hand when she stumbled (literally and metaphorically). She had all but moved into the apartment while Catra had been imprisoned, comforting herself at first and then taking on primary care givers for Javier. For that Catra would always be grateful, Javier had been surrounded by love when she had managed to get him out and he seemed not to worse for wear since their ordeal. They had organised for her therapist to visit the apartment daily (Entrapta’s unending pot of money which she was more than happy to let the Super Pal Trio dip into meant that nothing was off limits for Catra’s rehab), and in turn Cataspella had suggested a therapist for the boy. He may seem fine, he had been treated like a prince in the cult, but had also witnessed his mother’s mental and physical torture. It had turned out to be a great idea as he had been thick as thieves with his new confidant straight away. 

Now here she was trying to get her arm and leg to work properly. The muscles had healed poorly and enforced inactivity at Prime’s hand had meant that everything felt too tight, like she was wearing somebody else’s skin. Her own body no longer seemed to fit. Her skin still crawled when somebody else touched her and more than once she had bit out a scream when she had been caught by surprise. At least the wound in her side had finally healed completely. The infection that had persisted in her body throughout her incarceration had taken aggressive intervention to remedy, flesh cut away deep and the strongest drugs but been taken. Now she was left with a thick scar but, thankfully, no loss of flexibility in her torso.

Distantly she could hear the drone of her psychical therapist’s voice, though not the words through the whooshing of her blood in her ears and she buried her head into the mat. She ground her teeth so hard that she was sure they would squeak, unwilling to let the tears gathering in her eyes fall without a fight. No matter how many times she was told she was improving, she still felt like a prisoner, this time to her own body.

She wasn’t sure how long she laid there, but when a second voice joined the first she felt her body relaxed at the familiar sound. The cadence that she had known since childhood getting through her anxiety attack and allowing her to blink away the last of the tears. She uncurled her body from the protective shell that she had made herself into, flopping onto her back and staring at the ceiling, rather than to her side. She was vaguely aware of somebody leaving try room, all her attention focused on the person who was still by her side.

“Hey, Adora.” The words felt oddly flat as they left her lips, it was hard to conjure up any enthusiasm when she felt so pathetic.

“Hi,” her voice was full of forced cheerfulness. She had suffered in all this too.

Catra rolled her head to the side and finally looked at Adora. She noted, not for the first time, the hollow of her cheeks and the dark bags under her eyes. She hadn’t been taking care of herself, too busy looking at the Reyes’. The worry that was written all over her, that almost leaked out of her pores made Catra feel another layer of self loathing.

“You don’t have to babysit me, you know? You should go take a nap.” She could be caring and thoughtful, just because she had been hurt didn’t mean that she had to hurt the people she loved.

“Tallstar says you’re pushing yourself too much and it’s stopping you making progress.” She ignored Antra’s words, her lips turned down in a frown and her eyes resolute.

“I know my body, it’s literally my job. She doesn’t know what she’s talking about or I would be back to normal by now.” The words came out more of a growl than she had intended. Without thought she balled her fist and slammed it down onto the mat beside her hip in anger. Adora flinched.

“No, you don’t! You don’t know your body because HE broke it. You need to let her help you fix it so that you can find yourself again! He took so much away from you, away from us. You can’t let him maim you forever, take away the thing that saved us because of your pig headed pride.” High spots of colour rose on her cheek and her eyes shone as she spoke, never looking away from the prone woman.

Catra swallowed and listened, really listed to what Adora was saying, and what her words really meant. She was afraid. Afraid that Catra would let herself fall into a pit of despair that she couldn’t escape from. She was afraid that Catra would give up or run again. But she wasn’t that kid anymore. She didn’t run. She fought with tooth and claw. She had been fighting ever since she was taken. Wasn’t that what she was doing now? Fighting to get well?

She felt the ache in her shoulder, the throbbing in her thigh but nothing else. Her body wasn’t warm or loose, her breath was uneven. She had convinced herself that’s he was trying but really was she giving up? Throwing blame at the young woman who had been working so hard to get through to her about the need to stretch to get back her old limberness, to avoid her own part in this.

Sitting up gingerly, using her good arm and her stomach to pull her upright, she reached over and took Adora’s hand. She realised that the other woman had been sofocusedt on her eyes tat she hadn’t noticed her change in position, as she jumped when she felt the touch and realised that the eyes were suddenly much closer. 

Adora didn’t have to be here, she could have run for the hills when all the craziness began but she had stayed. She could have handed Javier to Scorpia and moved back into her cute little house, but she hadn’t. She could have left her in that place, but she had come to take her home. And she had come home with her.

“You’re right.” Her words were soft, but Adora’s expression was softer as she heard.

“You need to listen to her, go slow to go fast.” 

“Go slow to go fast,” wasn’t that just the best description of their entire relationship. She nodded as she repeated the blond’s words. “I’ll apologise tomorrow and I’ll listen, I promise. I can’t promise not to bitch and moan about it though.” That got a smile from the blond who had shuffled closer on the mat. “I just want to get better.” It was hard to say but lifted a weight inside to share. 

“You will. You have all the time you need, and you have all of us.” She reached out and cupped Catra’s jaw, hers (along with Javier’s) was the only touch that didn’t make her flinch. “You have me.”

Catra put her hand on top of Adora’s where it touched her face and leaned into it. She closed her eyes and let the other woman surround her.

“Do you think you could be here for PT tomorrow.” She didn’t open her eyes as she said the soft words, feeling ashamed to ask.

“Whatever you need.” Adora’s forehead was resting against her own when she opened her eyes and the truth of her words was written all over her face.

Catra brought her own hand to Adora’s cheek, tipping her face until their lips could meet in their second first kiss. It was a promise from Catra to Adora that she would try…

Stepping back from the bag, she shook out her arms and hands, unsnapping the velcro that held the covers on and letting them drop to the floor at her feet. She was careful to do her warm down, her shoulder the only part of her body that still caused her problems if she didn’t treat it with respect. Her anger and resentment were spent, for now, but her anxiety still lingered.

Adora was going to see the woman who had raised them. Of course she was. Adora was a bleeding heart, and thank god that she was otherwise who knows where Catra would be right now, but as much as that was one of her strengths, it was also her greatest weakness. Shadow Weaver knew it too, all she had to do was write that she was sick and Adora’s big heart wouldn’t let her be alone even after everything.

Catra’s last interactions with the witch had been about pain, her turning the knife in the open wounds of her failings even as she used the drugs coursing through the feline's system to help brainwash her. There was no way that Catra could be within a hundred miles of that creature. That and the fact that she had to go on TV in four hours and be dazzling, which she would not be able to do if she had been re-terrorised by her childhood nightmare.

Which left Adora alone to visit a monster. She wasn’t angry at Adora, couldn’t be.

What she felt was fear.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Into the Shadows...

The car seemed very quiet, even with some pop-tart wailing away on the radio. Adora drummed her fingers agitatedly against the steering wheel. She knew she would be making this drive alone, even it Catra hadn’t been adamantly opposed to seeing the woman who had so recently tortured her, she was going out of town to promote the movie. It was going to be the first time that she took the lead on something like this and rather than being excited and helping her prepare, Adora was on a bleak road to visit a ghost. 

Why was she doing this?

Adora knew why. Even though she hated everything Shadow Weaver had done to Catra. Hated the cold aloofness that had permeated even her childhood, the woman was still the only mother she had ever had. Shadow Weaver had been there for every one of Adora’s childhood triumphs and buoyed her confidence as an awkward teen. She had fed and clothed her and given her everything. With hindsight she knew that was all at the expense of Catra, Kyle and Lonnie, but the child inside her was confused. Torn.

So here she was, all alone again as she had been when Catra ran and Lonnie joined the citadel. Alone as she had been when she had first gone to college. The car felt stuffy, claustrophobic and small, which was laughable as she was driving Catra’s SUV because she was being picked up and driven to her interview. She rolled down the window, cool air hitting her face as she drew in a lungful. The air smelt like nature, green and earthy from the proliferation of trees that lined the road to the prison. It seemed serial that such a beautiful road would lead to a place that housed monsters.

Time rolled by and Adora followed the twists and turns that the GPS gave her but her mind drifted. She was just sixteen when she learned to drive. It had been something that she had been waiting for ever since she hit her teens. Another of the carrots that Shadow Weaver would dangle in front of her to cement her good behaviour and school success. If Adora was good; if Adora worked hard; if Adora got on the team…if, if, if. She hadn’t realised then but saw clearly now was how this had turned her into somebody who craved recognition and believed that failure was not an option. How many times had she castigated herself for not being good enough, a failure, somebody not worthy of love because of a small imperfection? Since she had started seeing Spinerella, a harsh spotlight had been directed at her self destructiveness, something she had always thought of as a tendency to self sacrifice, and where it came from… 

Unlike Catra, Adora’s time in the foster home hadn’t been a nightmare. Far from it. Adora had a pretty idyllic childhood, especially before she hit her teens. When she had still been too young to realise that Shadow Weaver’s punishments of her friends were physical, or what that would even mean, she had thought that she had a perfect life. She shared a room with her best friend, she had good friends at school, she was good at sports and most things came easily to her. Except math, she hated math. She liked stories, and documentaries and making things. She didn’t like the static numbers and the rules, they hurt her head and made her frustrated. Good girls didn’t get frustrated. That was something that Adora knew well, it was one of the things that got Catra in so much trouble.

Adora sat at the table in the kitchen, Catra to one side and Lonnie and Kyle opposite them. A faceless older girl that she could no longer remember, was at the small desk in the corner where the clunky old desktop sat working on her assignments. Lonnie always got on with her work as quickly and efficiently as possible, all she wanted was to get a passing grade and get out into the garden. It meant that she lived a life outside of Shadow Weaver’s interest, not bad enough to punish or good enough to praise. As children that must have seemed like a good thing, who would have known that as an adult it would lead her to where it did. Kyle wasn’t quite as lucky, his clumsiness often made him a target of their guardians ire but academically he did well and whizzed through his homework.

Catra was always a different kettle of fish. Sometimes it seemed to little Adora that her friend was just waiting to get into trouble like she liked it or wanted the attention, it was what she had heard Shadow Weaver hiss at the smaller girl as she pulled her away from her study to be punished, it never occur to the child that her friend had already learned, at seven years old, that it didn’t matter what she did so why try. She rocked on her chair, sometimes coming so close to tipping that, were it not for her tail, she would have smashed to the floor. Her odd eyes would stray around the room, as often settling on the little blond as her work and her pencil had an annoying habit of tap-tap-tapping when she was bored. More than once Lonnie would kick at her under the table and get an angry hiss in response.

The thing that annoyed Adora when they all did their homework wasn’t these things though, it was that when Catra did do her work it was always just ok, except for math. Catra excelled at anything that required logic of planning. She’d look at numbers and patterns and just seem to know the answer. She never asked for help with any of her work, even where she was only just getting it right and always did the best of all of them in math, completing work for kids in the grade above her which made Lonnie and Adora almost look bad in contrast. Adora could have asked her best friend for help, they told each other anything else, but the pride in herself that Shadow Weaver had instilled and the doubt in Catra’s abilities meant that she didn’t. Adult Adora would look back at that and realise how hurt and confused that must have made Catra feel, and how much she herself had inadvertently reinforced Shadow Weaver’s evil.

Once it became obvious that she was struggling, twice a week, Shadow Weaver would call her into her study and perch Adora on her lap, the math book open I front of them. She would rest her boney chin on the little girls shoulder and direct her with a soft patient voice about how to work out the problems. Adora had relished these moments more than any other, it felt as though she really was her mother. It was also when the older woman was at her softest. In those times young Adora had learned that her guardian worked with numbers from the office, that she enjoyed number patterns and loved a good set of sudoku puzzle.

It was on one of those times that Adora had first tried to call her mom. The older woman had been stroking her hair and cooing at how well she had been doing, other arm holding her waist as she sat on her lap. It had felt so warm and comforting that the child had let it slip as she asked if a problem looked right. She was eight and desperate to be loved. Shadow had recoiled as though she had been burned, pushing the child away and almost making her fall to the floor.

Adora had turned shocked eyes up at her and been hurt at the disgust on her face that the woman had not been quick enough to hide. Shadow Weaver’s words had not be hard or cruel, juxtaposing the look in her eyes that she had been quick to quell, but she firmly reminded Adora that she was not her parent. The session had ended early that day with a curt reminder that she was expected to keep up with all her homework.

Adora had expected their private homework time to be over after that but the next week she found herself back in the study and sat with her mentor as though nothing had happened. The routine had carried on through middle school, her moving to the couch with her work spread out across the coffee table while Shadow Weaver sat at the other end, pointing out where she was going wrong and praying her work with promises of an extra slice of cake at dinner. They had laughed together as she grew older, sharing private jokes, sometimes ta the expense of the people that she loved. Everything that happened when they were alone causing a rift that she would never notice until Catra had to run rather than confide in her. By her teens, she would work in silence, no longer needing Shadow Weaver’s help but enjoying the shared time. Her own special sort of masochism…

Adora huffed at the memories, more trees speeding passed as she saw how much longer it would take her to get to her destination. She loathed that even now she could feel a fondness for a woman who had used children as commodities and bargaining chips, who had helped almost steal away the woman she loved’s life. But she had and it made her hate herself. Involuntarily her foot pushed down the accelerator as her speed grew to blur the landscape… 

Shadow Weaver had promised sixteen year old Adora a car, just a junker but a piece of her own freedom. It would be hers, all the paperwork and everything. If she woke up one morning and wanted to just drive she would be able to (as long as she didn’t skip school, or course). The price of this gift? Well, it was as simple as a perfect GPA, no defiance and attaining captaincy of the team. Simple. No problem at all. For most children a gift didn’t need to be bought, but at the foster home everything was either something you bought with your good behaviour or won with your accomplishments. 

When she had brought home the report card with the perfect GPA and a year with no detentions or sanctions, a thrill had passed through her. Coupled with her promotion to team captain she was certain that this birthday would bring the car she had been promised. Shadow Weaver was many things but she was not a liar, at least that was what Adora told herself, she made good on her promises good or bad.

The weekend of her birthday had rolled around, all of her friends from school and the team were packed into the well manicured back yard, Lonnie at the heart of the group as one of the other players. Kyle skirted the edges, laughing nervously as some of the other, cooler kids, tried to talk to him and flinching just a little at a hand on his arm or pat on the back. Then there was Catra, tucked into a corner at the furthest point, hidden in a shadowed area almost out of sight. If Adora looked up she would give a small wave and smile that was returned enthusiastically but nobody approached her or dared talk to the angry, spiteful girl from school. They were all from the grade above anyway, and didn’t want to be sullied by associating with her.

When the cake had been brought out, a simple thing big enough for the group with sixteen candles in various states of melting, the entire groups had come together to surround her, singing lustily as she laughed and blushed a little at the attention. She felt the brush of a furred tail discretely on her bare leg where it peeked out from her shorts, and blowout the candles. This started present time, brightly wrapped box after box was presented and ripped open until only the small box passed to her from Shadow Weaver remained. She felt her fingers shake with anticipation as she tore the paper and then pulled off the lid of the small cardboard box. 

Nestled in surprisingly delicate tissue paper was a silver key on a chain with a wooden fob with her name carved into it. It was a surprisingly sweet gesture from the usually utilitarian woman. Adora’s eyes became glossy as she looked up and met the smiling eyes of her guardian, who had held out her hand and led Adora, leaving all of the others behind, to the front of the house where there was a small hatchback sitting waiting for her. It was white with a red stripe along the side and looked almost new. Adora went to open the door, when a long fingered hand reached over her shoulder and pushed the it closed, leaving the pair of them facing each other with Adora feeling oddly trapped between the car and the other woman.

“You’ve earned this Adora, you are growing into the finest young woman I could hope for. This is a symbol of how much trust I am placing in you. A trust that you have earned.” Her words were delivered in a pleasant voice but there was an edge under them. “Not all of my charges have earned such a thing. There are three conditions to this gift Adora. The first is simply that you are responsible for the up-keep of the vehicle, the second is that you will only use it to go anywhere other than school without permission and the third, and I need you to understand that you will lose the car if you disobey it, is that Catra is not to use the car. That means you are not to drive her to and from school, or the mall. She is not to try to drive it or go in it at all. That girl is reckless and dangerous and I do not trust her not to cause an accident.”

Adora wanted to say something. How this was unfair or how she could take responsibility for Catra like she always did. But no words came out. She found herself nodding her head in agreement, her desire for the freedom of the road outweighing her loyalty to her friend. She wasn’t proud of it, but wasn’t she allowed to just be a teenager sometimes.

That had started a difficult time between the two friends, a wedge that Shadow Weaver had obviously meant to drive between the two of them. A wedge that would mean that even though Adora believed their relationship was unchanged over the next two years, Catra would keep all her own dire secrets until she ran away in agony.

Adora was a summer baby; Catra used to joke that she was a little bit of sunshine. So at first, not being able to give Catra a ride to school in the morning wasn’t so bad, Adora told her why she wasn’t allowed to and the feline girl had shrugged it off and said that she liked to burn off the energy walking to school anyway. Adora always had after school activities so she wouldn’t have been able to drive her friend home again anyway. 

But summer is fleeting and Autumn came with heavy showers and cold winds. Adora would watch as Catra pulled on her hand-me-down coat, old, frayed and worn and slid her wrapped feet into boots that made her walk gingerly and head out for the long walk to school. The sad little figure doused in rain, hiding beneath a hood would pass the window and the girls had stopped waving goodbye to each other. Half an hour later Adora would get into her warm car and drive to school, passing Catra’s miserable form. She could have stopped and grabbed her, could have and nobody would know, but she was a good girl and she did as she was told. So she didn’t…

‘Good girl’, that’s what Shadow Weaver always ground into her until she was nothing but doing what she was told for what would be seen as right no matter the cost to herself or the people she loved. Spinerella’s calming words filtered into her brain. She was her own person. She didn’t have to always think of what was ‘right’. She was allowed to be happy in whatever way she wanted. Noticing her speed for the first time her eyes bugged out of her head and she slowed the car, thankful that she was alone on the winding road.

Not long now and she would be pulling into the parking lot of the prison. This was a bad idea with every fibre of her being but a bigger part of her wanted to sit in front of Shadow Weaver and get answers, demand restitution. It was a silly, childish notion, but one that she hoped desperately for. Shadow Weaver had almost been her mother, was it wrong to want answers?

The voice of the GPS range out that it was time to turn. She flicked the arm of the for the turn signal and the familiar clicks sounded out. Careful to check for other vehicles she made her way into the half full lot and pulled into space somewhere in the middle. The large, dark building looking before her like some monster from a fairy tale about to eat the princess whole. She turned off the ignition, looking at the time and realising that she still had twenty minutes before it was visiting time. It gave her time to sit and take a few deep breaths to even herself out.

The sound of her phone ringing made her jump out of her skin, banging her hand into the window as she jerked to try to pick it up from the cradle on the dash. The picture on the screen made everything suddenly seem a little less daunting, the smile that glowed from the phone was wide and carefree, caught in a moment of pure delight. She tapped the green button and brought it to her ear.

“Hey Mom!” Javier’s voice was happiness and fun mixed together. “Did you get there yet?” 

Here was the little boy she loved as though he were her own. She shared no blood with him, couldn’t look more different, but the whole of her heart belonged to him. Even before she had known that Catra was his mother she had a soft spot for him. Hearing him call her mom was one of the best things in the world and made her feel calm inside and loved in a way that loving his mother didn’t. It was like being his parent completed the puzzle of her life...

The first time he had called mom had been completely unexpected for the both of them. It had been a little over six months since the Prime situation and Adora had completely moved into the apartment. She wasn’t sharing Catra’s room yet, the other woman still too skittish and raw but they were working as a unit with morning and evening routines.

Catra had been at a counselling session, having regained the confidence to go out in the world and visit the office, while Adora and Javier had gone to the park. It had been a pleasantly warm day and the little boy had run off to the playground as fast as he could, commandeering a swing the second it became available. The park had been busy, the playground in particular packed with parents and their children playing happily. For a long time Adora watched from the sidelines as the boy ran from one piece of equipment to another, when he reached the imposing losing climbing frame, he had whooped and scaled it in seconds, the wide eyed wonder on the faces of the children he passed as they struggled their way up made Adora laugh.

When he had reached the top, he stood on the tiny platform, reaching up towards the sky. Adora had shielded her eyes to watch him, a soft smile on her face, proud of what he could do and never wanting him to feel afraid of what his body could accomplish, not like Catra had felt. Javier looked down, finding her eyes and she waved at him, hearing the hitting of some of the parents around her at the recklessness they perceived. His voice called down from the apex.

“Look at me Mommy!” She’d almost stumbled, even though she was standing still, at hearing the words. She saw that he was swinging down using his tail, moving fast like liquid. He had called her mommy.

He was back beside her before she knew it, arms wrapped around her waist and his head resting against her chest as he looked up at her smiling. “Did you see Mommy?”

“I saw Javi, you were amazing!” She didn’t say anything about the change, just leant down and pressed a kiss to his hair. “The other mommies were afraid but I knew you would be fine.” She whispered so only he could hear and felt his squeeze her tighter… 

“Hi Javi, I just parked up this minute, perfect timing.” He didn’t know why she and his Mama had been so tense, or why she was going somewhere that was making her so antsy, but he was still going to check she was good. “What are you up to?”

“Mama just got picked up in the coolest car ever! It had, like, sofas in the back and all sorts of food and snacks. Double Trouble was already there and they gave me a bottle of soda.” He was so excited that it made her chuckle. “Mama spent the day in the gym, I went and played there for a while but I got bored. Aunt Entrapta let me build a robot in her lab though so that was cool!”

Scorpia was going to feed him his dinner and Adora would be home for bedtime, Catra back late and then flying out to start their promo tour the following afternoon. “That all sounds like lots of fun. Be good for Scorpia and I’ll be back for bedtime. I love you.” Story time had mutated into him reading to her and it was one of the best times of her day.

“Ok Mom, see you tonight. I love you too! Bye.” He was gone, his phone etiquette still needed a little work.

She was a mom and she was loved and the woman waiting inside that building didn’t know what she had been missing. Adora was going to make sure she did.  
__________________

Sickly green walls glowed dully under the overhead fluorescent lights, trapped inside cages to protect them from violence or riot. The place smelled like damp and rot, too many bodies packed into small spaces with no chance of relief. Adora had checked into the prison, leaving her wallet, keys and phone in a locker and having to go through the indignity of a pat down. It had made her feel violated, as though it was her who had done something wrong and not the person that she was there to visit. For the hundredth time she wondered what it was about her that made her feel compelled to visit the other woman. She could just turn around and leave now, get home and take Javier to the movies or something. It was a nice thought but one she knew she couldn’t follow through. The moment she had applied for a received the visitation notice her fate was sealed. She wasn’t cruel enough not to turn up and leave the old woman sitting alone at a window waiting while all around her people were visited.

Finally allowed to walk through the barrier with the rest of the visitors, they were walked through to the visitation area by a surly looking guard. Everybody filed into the room but when it was Adora’s turn to walk through, the guard looked down at the clipboard in his pudgy hand and then held the same arm out in front of her, clipboard blocking her path. A shiver ran down her spine, what was going on? 

“I’ve got a visitation notice.” Maybe he thought that she didn’t have the paperwork.

“Sorry ma’am, the prisoner you’re visiting is in one of the private meeting rooms. Please follow me this way.” The words were gruff but not unkind as she followed his further along the corridor.

“I’m sorry, I don’t understand.” She did understand that she didn’t like this one bit.

“Ma’am, your mother has been offered special privileges due to her illness. Her behaviour has been exemplary and when she requested your visit she was granted permission for a private visit.” They approached a door with a single window at the top, a different guard standing to one side.

Mother? Her mother? Adrenaline had started to race through Adora’s body, her heart beating hard in her ribs. She had never wanted to be called mother until now. It looked like Shadow Weaver wasn’t beyond manipulating even the prison system. Adora imagined that her illness was nothing more than another elaborate lie. The last thing she wanted was to be sat across the table from the woman with no barrier between them. Not because she was afraid of Shadow Weaver, more because she was afraid of what she might do if she got her hands on her.

“You can go straight in ma’am. You need to stay on your side of the table. She is cuffed to the chair by her ankle so can’t get up from there. Please keep any physical contact to a minimum, you will both be thoroughly searched on exit.” He opened the door, nodding to the other guard as he did so. “You have thirty minutes, if you wish to leave at any time simply knock on the door.” Then he walking away, back to the main visiting area.

Adora took a deep breath and walked in with her shoulder’s squared to face a woman she hadn’t seen in five years. What she was expecting as she looked at her former guardian for the first time she wasn’t sure but it wasn’t this. Shadow Weaver looked gaunt and worn, her always murky skin a sallow grey and her body bony beneath the orange jump suit. She didn’t look as frightening as she used to. Except the eyes, those dark and penetrating eyes stared right at her as some approximation of a smile covered her face. The door closing behind her prompted Adora to make her way over to the metal table.

“Adora, my dear girl, you came. I knew you would. I’m glad to see that girl’s influence hasn’t turned you into a crass, rude animal like her.” And they were off, and she couldn’t even lay off for a second.

“I would suggest, if you want me to stay, that you stop talking about Catra right now.” Her normal placid eyes were stormy grey.

“I’m sorry, my girl, but you can’t expect me to be happy about your relationship with the person who put me here.” Her voice was sickly sweet, trying to sound reasonable.

“You are here because you were cooking the books for a criminal syndicate and laundering money for people trafficking, among so many other terrible things. Let’s not pretend I’m still some naive teenager.” She clasped her hands in front of her on the table’s surface to prevent her from reaching across or drumming her fingers.

“Of course, as you say.” Again that agreeable tone that crawled under her skin.

“You said you were ill?” Cut to the chase and get out, that was the plan she wanted to stick too. 

“Yes, seems as though now that I can no longer bask in Prime’s LIght, I have developed a blood disease. The doctors tell me I shall not last the year.” She was stoic as she delivered the information.

“I don’t mean to be rude, but have you got any proof of this? You’ve burnt me before.” Don’t get sucked in.

For the first time Adora noticed the beige file folder sitting on the table at Shadow Weaver’s elbow, her tunnel vision having let her take in nothing other than the woman. Shadow Weaver slid it across and tapped the surface, locking eyes with her visitor before leaning back in her chair and folding boney arms overhear chest as she waited.

Adora was a clever woman, personally sometimes a dummy as Catra might say, but academically she was no slouch. She had coasted comfortably through her degree and teaching qualification, so as she opened the folder and began to read, she was able to make out much of the scientific jargon. The basics were that she had contracted a parasite in her blood that was destroying her ability to carry oxygen around her body. There were scans and charts as well which all seemed to show this was true. A part of Adora wondered if this was something that Prime had given to all of his people, keeping them well until he no longer needed them or was put out of commission. It would be poetic, appropriately sadistic.

“Fine. I believe you.” She closed the papers and met the other woman’s gaze. “It’s sad that you’ll die in prison but you can’t think that I am going to take pity on you after what you did.” 

“Adora, you misunderstand why I asked you here.” The burr from her childhood was back in that voice, the one that said; ‘I care for you, I want the best for you, you can trust me’ and Adora had to fight the desire to lean in to it. “You were always my greatest work. I saw in you all of my own hopes and dreams for the future, and you have lived up to every one. You are strong and beautiful with a strategic mind - I know it was you who orchestrated the break into the citadel - and you care about other people. How could I not want to see you?” Adora felt uncomfortable on the other side of the desk, these were things she had always wanted to hear but not like this. “I remember you sitting on my lap as a little girl and how we laughed. You were always such a good girl.”

“That was a long time ago.” There was a crack in Adora’s voice, a chink in her armour that Shadow Weaver easily saw.

“Of course, you are looking after a child now, so I hear. The Son is in your care and I cannot think of anyone better to be his guardian. Surely he needs to be taught civility living with… well you know who.” There was something sharp in her voice now. Adora felt like she had whiplash from the back and forth of Shadow Weaver’s words.

“You’re like me, we are woman who mothered other people’s children but were never mothers. It’s why you became a teacher and I a foster mother. We’re missing that maternal instinct, we care but not enough to bare our own offspring. After all, who could want somebody like you to be a mother to their child? You always get so close to perfection but just fall short, don’t you Adora,” Shadow Weaver had leaned forward and reached out a hand to cover her own where they were clasped on the table. The younger woman tried to pull away, but the older woman’s grip was firm and so she left her hand there, a thumb rubbing against the back of one.

“You could be so much more than an elementary school teacher, but you settle for mediocrity. You fear your power. You could have anyone you wanted but still chase after Catra like you did as a child, for all your strength you haven’t grown up. You think she loves you? She sees you for the easy mark you are. You are a convenience for her and the boy, once they have no more use for you they will throw you aside.”

“No, they won’t. We’re a family, they love me. Javier calls me mom!” She wished she could take it back as soon as the words left her mouth, seeing the spark catch in the dark eyes across the table. Roughly she slid her hands away and rested them on her knees under the table.

“Oh of course,” laughter filled her words. “Of course he would. You are his mother and I am yours.”

“NO! I am not you. I will never be you. I am a good person. I love my life. You are a bitter old woman who just brought me here to try to separate me from the people I love so that you would have somebody to come visit you while you’re sick.” Yes, that was definitely it.

Adora got up from the table, the chair clattering to the floor. Her anger was seething, she hadn’t even said the things she had come to say. Shadow Weaver had won again, creating the agenda and eating away at her self esteem as she always had. She kept her back turned to the cackling figure at the table as she pounded on the window, wanting out.

Soon enough the guard was holding the door open and she was about to step out when Shadow Weaver threw more words at her like knives. “Mark my words Adora, the second you make a mistake you won’t have a family anymore. Visit again soon.” 

Adora rushed out, suffering the indignity of another search, before ripping her things from the locker and thrusting them to her pockets. She got to the car before she let herself cry.  
__________________

Catra had been gone for a month. Javier and Adora had put a big map up on the wall, sticking a pin in each time she called them from another country. Javier wrapped blue twine around each pin and would pull it across to the next, making it look like an odd mix of a crime board from a TV show and the rout of an explorer. With each new place, Adora would pull out a travel book and they would paw over the details of the place. In truth the two of them were learning a lot more about the exotic locations that Catra was visiting than she, Sea Hawk or DT. They were on a constant hamster wheel of press events, interviews, sound bites and premiers of the film. There was very little time for anything unstructured beyond falling into bed and making a sleepy video call home.

Today the call from Catra came around breakfast time, their time. Adora and Javier were at the table, side by side with the computer open in front of them. Each had a bowl of cereal in front of them and were happily chowing down. Catra watched them affectionately from the other side of the world, eyes half closed and body limp on the bed. Her voice was at its lowest register, gravelly with exhaustion, a yawn escaping every now and then. 

“The food here is really good. Lots of fish prepared in weird but tasty ways. You’d love it Beastie.” It was one part of being part cat that he had definitely inherited from her. “And, Adora, they have these pastries with a fruit and cream filling that you would scarf down!” All three of them laughed, it was no secret that Adora was a sucker for sweets and cakes, it was a good job that she liked to work out to make up for it. “What’s on the agenda for you two today?” Her eyes were drooping more and more as she spoke. 

“We’re going to the water park with Rook!” Javier’s long pointed ears perked up and wiggled, revealing his excitement. “Mom’s going to show me how to dive. She thinks I’ll be a natural.” Javier didn’t notice the way his mother’s eyes went wide in horror, but Adora did.

“We’ll be really careful and start with diving from the side. Mermista will be there too, just two gals missing their partners and entertaining the kids. I just though that he would enjoy it and as you two always know where your body is in relation to the ground then he should be really good at knowing where the water is.” Catra still didn’t seem convinced. “Look Miss Sceptical, I know you would rather run through fire but Javier likes swimming. I promise we’ll be super careful.”

“I know, just the thought of all that water makes my skin crawl.” 

“Well, after the swimming we’re going to have lunch at a cafe and then go and play in the park. It’s going to be all action over here. What about you?” Adora could see that Catra didn’t have much left in the tank tonight.

“Oh, you know, catch a couple hours sleep, do a breakfast TV show as a group, and then we’re back in the air to go to… I don’t even know where honestly. I think I’m doing so fight choreography tomorrow night that Sea Hawk is going to talk through - those hosts aren’t going to know what hit them when he starts.” She laughed but it quickly turned into a wide yawn.

“Mama, you look really tired. You should go to sleep. We can talk to you tomorrow. I gotta go pee. I love you.” Javier blew Catra a kiss which she returned, smiling at his babble. He got up from the table and took his bowl to the sink before heading to the bathroom, leaving his mothers looking at each other.

“Hey, Adora, what’s going on in that big head of yours? You ok?” Catra had been worried about the impact of going to visit Shadow Weaver, making sure she could check in with the blond whenever they spoke alone. So far Adora had seemed fine, telling her only a little of what had been said but assuring her girlfriend that she was fine. That their old foster mother had not got under her skin. Catra wasn’t sure she believed it bit she wouldn’t push too hard while she was still so far away.

“Just missing you. You look exhausted, aren’t there any off days while you do this?” Adora couldn’t help but feel worried about Catra’s physical health. Yes, she had recovered and made a movie that demanded a lot of her body but she needed to still take care of herself.

“I think we have a couple of days next week that’s just sitting around in hotels. Honestly, I’m fine, I miss you guys like a part of me is gone, but other than that I’m good. Only five more weeks.” Though five more weeks felt like a lifetime to all of them.

“Well, you need to go to bed, you’re barely keeping those pretty eyes open. I love you.”

“Love you too. Take care of that boy and don’t forget to look after yourself too. I’ll call tomorrow.” They whispered a few final words to each other before the screen went black. Miles away, Catra tucked herself into her sheets and fell asleep. Adora, on the other hand, got ready for a day of fun and adventure. 

The pool was packed with other families having the same idea as them and Adora was glad that she asked Mermista and Rook to meet them there. It wasn’t that she couldn’t handle being in charge of children in public, she was a teacher of small children after all and had been on plenty of field trips. It was the nagging doubt that Shadow Weaver had managed to plant in her head, that something bad would happen to the boy under her watch. She had tried to push it aside, even agreeing to take him to learn how to dive to show just how fine she was. Except she was scared.

Mermista greeted them from where she had commandeered a couple of loungers side-by-side at the edge of the outdoor pool and was slathering sun lotion onto Rook’s skinny arms and shoulders that peeked out of her bathing suit. Javier rushed towards them and high fives the little girl. Adora was a little way behind but just as excited to see them. Mermista was at home in the water and Rook was a strong swimmer so she knew she didn’t need to worry about them. Considering that Catra hated water with a passion, Adora had been surprised to learn that he liked swimming and had been swimming since he was an infant. It turned out Scorpia and Entrapta had taken him when he was a baby so that Catra would have some mommy time. 

Adora put their bag down, and stripped down to her own bathing suit before turning to Javier who was already standing in his trunks. He had balled his clothes into a ball and handed them to her with a smile. She shook her head at him and put them down to fold up after he was safely sunscreen. She took out a bottle of lotion especially made for highbrows and began to rub it on his skin, careful to rub it into the new fur on his shoulder and the line of his spine so that he wouldn’t burn there, He wriggled and grumbled, but it was soon over and he and Rook went and jumped into the kids area well in the line of sight of both mothers.

“How are you doing with him?” Mermista’s perpetually bored sounding voice broke into her thoughts.

“He’s making it really easy actually. I was a bit worried that he’d wait for Catra to leave and then become a monster but he’s been really helpful.” Adora was genuinely surprised.

“Yeah, he’s always been mellow. I always wondered where Kit got him from,” it was still weird to hear people use Catra’s other name, “she’s such a spitfire and he’s so chill. Rook on the other hand…” she waved a hand just in time for Adora to follow where she pointed and see Rook screaming out a song as she cannon balled into the water, “All Sea Hawk.” She sounded fondly exasperated. 

They all swam around for a while, splashing and seeing who could hold their breath longest under the water. Then the quartet made their way over to one of the low diving boards at the far end of the pool. Adora let Mermista explain to Javier how diving from a board was different from just in at the side and he showed that he understood the body position. He seemed particularly interested in how you would have to keep track of where the water was so yo could enter smoothly. Apparently it was very like how his Mama had taught him to somersault from tree to tree. That had made Adora feel more relaxed about what they were doing, somersaulting in a tree was far more hazardous.

They did a few practice dives from the edge, the little boy quickly picking up on how to move his body to enter with as small a splash as possible. He and Rook jumping in side by side. Then they moved to the flexible board. Adora’s heart was in her mouth as Javier made his way to the end of the board, she and Mermista having demonstrated to him, followed by Rook who were all watching him from the water.

Javier got to the end of the board and did everything he had from the side. He seemed fine until the board started to flex under him as he bent his knees to jump, something that Adora hadn’t considered. It put him off, making him wobble and then slip with one foot. She watched in horror as one foot slid off of the board and then the child was flopping inelegantly into the water in a flurry of flailing limbs. She dashed over to him, seeing him come to the surface spluttering. Before she could fuss though, he began to laugh and she realised that he was fine.

“That was so silly, Mom. Did you see? It’s like when you’re on a branch but I thought it’d be like the floor. I’ll get it right next time.” And he did. He climbed back up and managed to dive in with only a few wobbles. By the time the four of them were done, Javier was able to enter the water like a blade.

Changing back into their street clothes, the group agreed to meet up again next week, Mermista missing Sea Hawk as much as she missed Catra and enjoying the chance to have somebody to talk to about it. Adora and Javier walked down the sidewalk to a nice little cafe that served fish and chips that the boy adored. It was a day for fun to take their minds off of the person that they missed. The success of the swimming trip meant that Shadow Weaver’s claws had loosened their grip on her psyche somewhat.

After they ate, it was time for the park. Adora was full and already feeling tired. She didn’t know where the boy bouncing ahead her got the energy. The park was quiet, only a few scattered groups of children. Javier bounced from one piece of equipment to another in the playground but soon grew bored with them, instead running speedily into the trees. Adora followed him at a leisurely pace, not concerned with him climbing trees. After all it was how he had escaped from Prime, after all.

Like so many things, the moment you let your guard down is the very moment when things decide to go wrong. She had just reached the treelike when she heard a splintering sound from above. She didn’t have time to react before there was the sound of screaming in the air, followed by twin thuds as Javier hit the ground in a crumpled heap alongside the branch that had broken under his weight. The boy was early silent.

Adora was moving before she had time to thing, throwing her bag to the side and skidding to a halt beside him on her knees. All of her first aid training suddenly fell from her head. What was she supposed to do? Was he breathing? Panic was running through her, she was a failure. She had taken him to do something that he was good at and he had still got hurt! 

Groaning filled the air as Javier turned onto his back, whimpering as he moved his left arm and a pain shot through it. It was a pain he had felt before, when he was four and had fallen from a much lower branch. That time it had been his leg though. He looked through pain clouded eyes at Adora beside him, arms hovering but not touching him and her face white with fear. He remembered that look on his Mama’s face too.

“Mom, I’m ok,” he saw her take in a shuddering breath and finally rest her hand on his good arm. “I think I broke my arm so we need to go to the hospital but don’t worry, I’ve broken my arm and my leg before. It’s ouchy but I’ll get a cast and it’ll be fine in a few weeks.” He climbed to his feet, using her shoulder for leverage and the guided her up behind him. 

Like a robot, Adora followed the little boy, absently scooping up the discarded bag. She had parked the car near the playground and they had walked to the pool and back, so they didn’t have far to go. Once they were safely inside and she had made sure his seat belt wouldn’t hurt his arm more she started the ignition, string with her hands on the wheel and taking a few deep breaths.

A small voice range out through the car, he would have touched her shoulder like his Mama did, but he was cradling the arm to his chest. Instead he got her attention, eyes moving slowly towards him as her breath came out funny. Javier was a perceptive little boy with a mother who had tried to teach him to be emotionally mature and shared almost everything with him. They had relied on each other for a long time and he could see that his mom was freaking out and needed him to help her calm down.

“Mom, you know you’re a good mom, right? I would have fell off the branch even with Mama. It was rotten and I did’t realise. You love me and take care of me really well and I love you. We’ll go to the hospital, they’ll fix me up and we can go home and have a cuddle.” He noticed that her cheeks had started to pink up as he spoke and he felt his heart swell with pride, almost making him forget how much his arm hurt. “Do you believe me?”

“Yes, Javi, I believe you. Sorry I’m freaking out. I love you too.” Finally feeling ready to drive, she pulled into the traffic. She wasn’t ok, she would still cry about this in bed. But Javier’s words were fighting against Shadow Weaver’s in her head.

That night, Javier in a pristine blue cast, they called Catra and Adora let Javier take the lead. She was trembling beside him, waiting for Catra to scream at her and tell her to drop the boy at Scorpia’s before getting out of their loves. She wasn’t prepared for the boy proudly waving his injured arm in the air while Catra let out a laugh.

“What did you do this time, Beastie?” She was looking over the boy’s head and trying to catch Adora’s eye but she kept looking away and chewing her lip.

“After we went swimming, which was so cool, I learnt how to dive, we went to the park. I was up one of those big old trees and then a fat branch broke. It must have been rotten, it was quick and then I was on the ground.” He turned and smiled at Adora, forcing her to look back at the screen. “Mom was super cool. She took me to the hospital and then we had pizza for dinner and watched a movie. She was really scared when I fell but I told her it wasn’t the first time.” He smiled at his Mama, hoping she was pleased that he had been so grown up.

“That’s my boy. I’ve had more than one branch break on me that’s for sure. So long as your head is ok then we’re good. Well done, Adora, I knew you were the best mom already.” She could see that her words weren’t quite enough. “Hey, Beastie, can you go and fetch your pain meds so I can check what they gave you?” The little boy wasn’t stupid and knew he she wanted him out of the room for a while so left without complaint.

“Adora, hey, look at me please?” Finally blue eyes met hers across cyberspace and she could see the tears that were waiting to fall. “You don’t need to feel bad, you did good. He’s a little boy, and he’s a cat, he’s going to fall. Would I rather he didn’t have a broken arm? Sure. Am I angry about it? No. You did everything right and that little guy loves you and that he got pizza. Stop beating yourself up.”

“But this is exactly what Shado - ” Adora wasn’t allowed to finish that thought.

“Don’t even say it Adora, she’s full of shit. You are a good parent and a good partner. You did what any parent would. You can’t wrap him in cotton wool. Listen to me, listen to Javier. Don’t let her ruin you now when she couldn’t when we were kids.” Her voice was so sincere and her face held an achingly sweet expression and Adora couldn’t help but believe.

Javier came back into the room before she could respond and kissed her cheek as he held out his meds to the camera so Catra could read them. Everything was fine, Adora would still cry in bed that night from the fear at seeing the boy fall but she would dream of Catra’s words, not Shadow Weaver’s. 

__________________

If Catra had been told nine weeks ago that she would hate the comforts of a limousine with a burning passion she would have laughed her rusty laugh, head tipped back in wild abandon. That was nine weeks ago. Now, if she had to sit on those leather seats, breathing in the cloying fragrance that came through the air conditioning and listening to Sea Hawk and DT breathe of swallow their drinks, or chew in the tint space she would scream. Maybe scratch someones eyes out. Who knew that dainty, delicate, refine Double Trouble chewed louder than a threshing machine? Or that Sea Hawk had a slight whistle every third time he exhaled? Catra knew! Her incredible ears and sense of smell had proved to be a real detriment in close quarters with the other two. At least neither of them were flatulent, and that’s about the only compliment could pass.

Thankfully, they were finally on the last leg of their journey, the final furlong towards home. Sea Hawk was slumped over on one of the long benches, passed out from too much champagne and too little sleep over the last few days. Catra and Double Trouble sat together on the other. At the start of the tour they would have been facing each other and talking, passing snide comments back and forth and laughing. Now they were all thoroughly sick of each other and she and the lithe lizard sat staring out of the windows as the buildings whizzed passed. Thankfully Dryl was at the edge of town and they would reach it first.

She let her mind drift, almost napping but not quite. The movie, it turned out, was nothing special. Reviews had been kind to her, less so to her co-stars. She had been called ‘a breath of fresh air’, an ‘exotic’ new comer and a ‘femme fatale’ for the action age, basically she was a bit of an oddity so that made her bankable, there had been little mention of her acting though her stunts had garnered praise. Naturally. 

Having given the acting stuff a try, Catra was starting to think that for the bit of extra cash it just wasn’t worth it. She hadn’t really enjoyed the long shoots or early call times, she got to see even less Javier than she did while doing stunt work. Learning lines was tedious and she just wasn’t that great at pretending. She’d sit down with Adora and talk it through where to go from here, she wasn’t a free agent anymore and a decision that affected her affected the whole of her little family now. 

Wheels thudded over the speed hump at the start of the parking lot and she roused herself, smiling to see the squat grey of Dryl. She really loved that place. Thank heavens for Entrapta, she’d have to make sure that she popped into the lab in the week. Her dance card was shockingly empty for the next month so she could hang out with all of the people that she cared about. She would have to remind her agent that she’d need something new on the horizon. Razz was a lovely old gal, but not always totally focused on the task at hand.

“Hey, Bird Boy!” She kicked a bare foot out and caught Sea Hawk none too gently in the ribs. He startled awake with a squawk and promptly fell face first onto the floor.

“What was that for?” He had that strange inflection when he spoke that just always made her laugh.

“I’m home bozo, thought you might want to say bye.” As much as she would be glad to see the back of these guys for a good long while, she did think of them as part of her mad little family. They had both been a big part of her rescue and of her getting the opportunity to be a star. Wasn’t there fault she didn’t like it.

“Quite right, Kit. You and the family will have to come over for a barbecue soon.” In the past he would have leaned forward and tried to hug her or at least clap her on the shoulder but she still wasn’t comfortable with casual touch. He had been surprisingly quick to realise he needed to back off.

“What about me, Kitty-Cat?” Neither of them had managed to break the habit of using her work name, honestly it was reassuring to still have that name out in the public eye. Double Trouble was one of the few people who hadn’t changed how they interacted with her after, they were too straight forward for that. It was fun to be around them, it grounded her and had helped her come back to herself a lot. Still it was going to be nice to be away from the sarcasm and cynicism for a while.

“Well, of course I’ll miss your witty green ass. Don’t do too much wild partying.” DT was well known for their liaisons and carousing off set, they weren’t one for settling down.

She jumped out of the car, she didn’t have any bags, they would arrive later. It was touch and go but she managed not to break into a dead run as she got to the automatic doors. People talked about her enough, didn’t want to go looking crazy in front of everybody, she kept that for upstairs. She walked passed reception, casting her eyes over it and looking for a familiar face but there was a blank faced newbie looking back at her. They didn’t even bat an eye at her and she thought she would have to have a word with Huntara about who she was recruiting.

The elevator seemed to be taking an inordinate amount of time, she waited for it impatiently. Claws on her hands and feet tapping off rhythms. The second it opened in front of her she rushed in and pushed the number for her floor a little too hard, almost cracking the plastic covering the button. She hadn’t told Adora and Javier that she was coming home today, she knew they would be there, she wanted to surprise them. When she got out of the car she was across the hall and opening the door without a thought. 

She had been desperate to return home five weeks ago when Javier had broken his arm, wanting to hug her boy and check he was all right for herself and to reassure Adora unperson that she hadn’t done anything wrong. They were cat people, they jumped and climbed and broken bones were almost an inevitability. She hadn’t, and it had taken every piece of self control not to. She had called Casta about it and they had agreed that coming back would undermine Adora and she was already feeling like she couldn’t be trusted. Instead they had video called for a long time after the incident and after a couple of days Adora had finally confessed that Shadow Weaver’s words at her visit had got to her. Made her feel worthless and incapable of being a parent and then when Javier hurt himself it seemed true. Catra had been quick to reassure her, but vowed to herself that if she ever got near that woman again nothing would stop her sending her the same way as Prime! Shaking off that memory she called out.

“Honeys I’m home!” It was an obnoxious holler but meant that both the people she loved would come to her and she would see them at the same time, rather than wondering the apartment and finding them. 

Silence reigned for a fraction of a second before she heard happy cries coming from further down the hall and then the slapping of two sets of bare feet as they ran along the polished wood of the floor. Catra felt a smile stretch her face until her cheeks ached as she braced for impact.

Javier came careening around the corner first, spotting her and shouting ‘Mama’ so loudly that her ears twitched to try to protect her from the noise. He ran and collided with her body, making her take a step back as he wrapped his arms around her and squeezed with all his mite. His caste had come off two days ago, he’s proudly told her on the phone, so his hug was extra tight. She reached around him and held him back, cradling the back of his head in her hand as she had since he was a baby, even lowering her head, not as far as she used to, to rub her nose into his hair and breath in his scent. She had closed her eyes as she absorbed her boy, cooing his name, so when a second pair of arms wrapped around her from behind she tensed just a little but quickly sank into the embrace of her lifelong love. She was still a little skittish, but she knew she would always be safe here. 

Not relinquishing her hold on Javier, she reached up one hand behind her and cupped Adora’s face when she rested her chin onto the shorter woman’s shoulder and turned her face to share an awkwardly perfect peck on the lips. In a life that had been hard, this was one of the most perfectly soft moments she had ever felt. They all stood there, entwined, just reabsorbing each other for a long time just exchanging soft words of love and cuddles. They broke away when Catra’s stomach let out a loud growl that Javier felt through their hug and started to giggle.

“You got a monster in there Mama, or do you need some breakfast?” It was something that she used to say to him when he was small and she poked him in the ribs to watch him squirm at his cheekiness.

“You bet mister, I brought a dragon home from my travels but I got a little peckish so I swallowed it whole!” She broke away from Adora who was looking at the pair of them in bemusement as they started to stalk each other across the family room.

“I’ll go and make some pancakes then?” Adora’s voice seemed a little unsure as she tried to remove herself from the interaction, catching Catra’s attention. She had relearned Adora well enough to know what was going through her mind, all the seeds of doubt and the self loathing that were built into her when she felt like a failure.

“Beastie, I’m gonna go help make second breakfast, you ok in here? Why don’t you set up for indoor picnic?” It was always a treat he enjoyed, to be allowed to eat sitting on a blanket in front of the TV. He nodded enthusiastically and ran off to get blankets and cushions.

Catra grasped Adora’s hand and led her to the kitchen. The blond allowed herself to be led, and when she got there kept her eyes downcast as she tried to move away to the refrigerator, but Catra didn’t relinquish her grasp. Instead she pulled on the hand until Adora was in her arms and she could wrap her arm around her waist and lift the other hand to raise her chin, looking into blue eyes that darted around uncertainly.

“Hey, Adora?” She breathed it out softly as though she were talking to the most precious thing in the world, and she was. Adora finally relaxed into her arms and held her back. 

“Hey Catra,” she spoke softly, her words full of affection. “I missed you so much. I’m so sorry about what happened to…”

Catra didn’t let her finish that thought, stealing the words in a fiery kiss that left both of them dizzy and leaning their foreheads together. “You are the best mom and partner I could have ever hoped for. This is everything I could ever want. I know you feel bad that Javier hurt himself but he’s a little boy who climbs, it’s not the first broken bone he’s hand and it probably won’t be the last. Stop beating yourself up.”

“I know you’re right,” Adora rested her head into the crook of Catra’s neck and shoulder. “It’s just hard not to think I failed to protect him, like I failed to protect you, especially since I went to visit…” her voice tapered off, not wanting to mention the older woman’s name.

“I know. That’s why the old bitch wanted you to go, I guess. Why let anyone else be happy when she’s so fucking miserable. Look, you never have to see her again, and nothing that happened to me as a kid was anyone else's fault but those sick adults.” She forced Adora to look at her again. Blue eyes met her own mismatched pair and she tried to push all the earnestness she possessed into that look “You are good, and you are brave, and you are Javier’s mom. No more beating yourself up about things that are inevitable.”

Catra waited a heartbeat for Adora to react, and when she did it was a beaming smile that slowly grew over her face like the sun coming from behind a cloud, and she found herself receiving another soft kiss before the teacher pulled back and held her face between both of her hands, cupping it like something precious and fragile. “I need you.”

“Well, you got me.” They kissed again and then it was time to make pancakes because Catra’s stomach made an angry growl which made them both laugh, the tension broken.

As Adora made her way to the pantry for flour and eggs, Catra retrieved the milk and the mixing bowl. She stood close to Adora as she whisked the ingredients together and poured it into the skillet on the stove. They basked in being together, no words between them until it was time to call Javier for his second breakfast.

Lounging on a pile of blankets on the floor, mouths full of fluffy goodness and fingers a little sticky, Catra look around and knew that’s she wouldn’t be able to leave these two like that again. If she ever had to do that again, they would have to come too. She was broken from her chain of thought from a question from her son.

“How come you’re back three days early, Mama?” His face was shiny with syrup, reminding her fondly of a tiny, pudgy faced version of this boy with his face smeared in food in his high chair.

“Some show cancelled on us and it was the last one, we were having a bit of down time and when given the opportunity we all decided that we’d rather be home with our families than hand out in a foreign country. If I’m sight seeing, I’d want it to be with you two.” There was an ‘aww’ from beside her and she gently kicked under the table, getting a pout from Adora.

“Then we’ll have to take a vacation was school’s out, just us.” It was possibly the smartest idea that Adora had ever had.

They cleaned up together, Javier standing on a low step and washing up the few plates and bowls that had been used. He liked the bubbled and using the sponge on a stick. He enjoyed helping out. When he and his mama had been just the two of them he had started to do chores when he was five to help out, now he isn’t have to but he liked to feel like a part of the fabric of their family.

The weather was warm, and the three of them went to the woods. There were still some lingering fears for all of them about the place, and they never returned to the area that the mother and son had been taken from, but they didn’t let that stop them. They had been robbed of too much to stop doing something that they liked so much. They brought the ropes that they had bought months ago to help Adora climb up with them so that she could experience what they did. It was finny to see her wrapped the harness with her t-shirt bunched up where it was tucked in. They all started to climb a large, gnarly tree with plenty of and footholds for somebody without claws.

It was a perfect day back. Almost.

Later that night, after Javier had been put to bed, reading both of his moms a chapter of his new favourite book before receiving twin kisses to his cheeks, Catra and Adora sat wrapped in each other on the coach, watching a show that had been recorded in her absence. It was a simple thing, but they were both happy to just relax with each other. They were both so wrapped up in each other and the events unfolding on the screen that the ringing of the phone caused both of them to jump, looking at each other and sharing an embarrassed laugh. The phone continued to ring and Adora stretched her body across the empty part of the sofa to grab it off of the end table, not bothering to look at the caller ID.

“Hello?” It came as a question, everybody she regularly interacted with would text or use her cell.

“Hello Adora.” The cool, aloof voice that filtered through the phone was so unexpected that she almost dropped the phone. Catra raised an eyebrow at her reaction and shuffled closer, ear cocked to hear what was on the other end of the phone.

“How can you be calling? Shouldn’t this be coming from the prison?” She pulled the phone from her ear and looked at the number, a generic cell number and certainly not the place where the woman was incarcerated. Had she escaped?

“Now Adora, haven’t you realised yet that there isn’t anything I can’t do? It’s shockingly easy to get a cell in here and all the amenities a dying woman could want, while people look the other way.” Though Catra couldn’t make out the words, the smug tone was unmistakable. She reached out to take the phone, but Adora shook her head, tapping her fingers to her lips to ask her to keep silent. She pulled the feline closer so that she would be able to hear the words.

“What do you want Shadow Weaver?” It was impressive how level she was able to keep her voice.

“What does any old woman want from the children she raised? I’m lonely, aren’t you Adora, with Catra,” it was like she couldn’t help spitting the name out, “gallivanting around the world? You honestly think that she hasn’t got somebody else warming her bed at every destination? That you’re special?” That wheedle that had always worked in the past to make Adora bow to her will was back in her voice. Catra reached out for the phone again, the anger palpable in every line of her body, but Adora wanted to hear what else the old witch had to say.

“I’m certain she isn’t! Even if she was like that, and she isn’t, you are Prime made sure that she could never trust anybody enough.” There was steel in her voice that took the called off guard, but she was quick to regroup.

“Well, you’ll have to ask her when she gets back in two days.” Two pairs of eyes widened at each other, how did she know Catra’s itinerary that well? “I’m sure she wasn’t happy when the boy broke his arm. It’s wonder that you’re still allowed in that apartment. I told you, you were incapable of being a parent. Looks like I was right…”

That was enough for Catra who couldn’t hold back any longer and snatched the phone from Adora’s loosening grip. She growled low in her throat, dark and menacing as she brought the receiver to her ear. “Listen you vile husk, I would trust Adora with our son any day of the week. You’re a twisted monster and don’t understand how normal people live. You never cared about us and you still don’t. You’re just looking for a way to feel powerful while you waste away and die. Nobody is going to mourn you. You’ll be dead in the ground, in the dark in a grave nobody will ever visit!” She didn’t give the older woman a change to respond as she smashed the disconnect button and threw the receiver across the room, not even reacting as it smashed against the wall.

Adora flinched at the destruction, hoping that the noise hadn’t woken Javier, as she moved to curve her body against Catra’s, wrapping her in strong arms and kissing the back of her neck, breathing out a ‘thank you’ that she knew sensitive ears would be able to pick up.

“I thought you’d be mad I did that.” Catra’s voice still held an edge.

“How could I be mad at my knight in shining armour? I wanted to say everything you just did, believe me. It’s like I’m programmed not to defy her when she speaks and I just freeze.” All of her childhood just felt like an elaborate brain washing, and maybe that’s all any of them had been. A series of experiments on how to best control an adult by toying with their child selves. 

“You’re knight, huh?” She turned her head and quirked a sardonic eyebrow at her.

“Yep, my hero.” She kissed her before she could make a snarky response and felt herself pulled around and onto Catra’s lap as she leaned back into the sofa cushions. It was a while before they broke apart, shirts having been discarded somewhere along the way and the feel on fur on skin grounding them both. “She knew a lot.”

“Yeah, she’s got somebody watching us and feeding her information. It’s probably a PI but it could be one of the Brothers. I’ll get in touch with the police tomorrow and we’ll get Huntara up here too. We seem to be safe for now.” She ran her hand up the back of Adora’s neck and used her claws to cut her hair tie, letting golden hair fall down around her.

“Wanna be my girl in every port?” She didn’t have to ask twice.  
_________________

“For he’s a jolly good fellow!  
For He’s a jolly good felllloooooow!  
And so say all of us!” 

Whoops and clapping filled the clearing, the sounds bouncing off of the trees and back to the gaggle of people. Brightly coloured banners and streamers were looped around branches of the trees. Balloons sat clustered and anchored to the floor, swaying in the warm breeze that made the day balmy. Adults and children stood in small clusters around the picnic table that was loaded with food and dominate by a cake in the shape of a swimming pool with a big nine standing proud atop a diving board, much to his mother’s chagrin; the candles glowing brightly. 

Catra and Adora stood side-by-side behind Javier as he blew out the candles in one enormous blow. Their arms were around each other and each had a free hand resting on one of the boy’s shoulders. They were a perfect little unit of three, each of them equally important. Adora looked over the boys head at and smiled at her girlfriend, receiving a quick kiss on the lips in response.

“What did you wish for Javier?” Rook was stood at the end of the table with a group of Javier’s school friends, hands hooked onto the table and her dark eyes, just like her mother’s, looking at the cake rather than the boy she addressed.

“You know I can’t tell you that, then it won’t come true!” 

Honestly the boy had almost everything he wanted. His moms had let him open a few of his presents first thing that morning, a thick white envelope had been thrust into his hands and they had both looked nervously between him and the gift in his hands. He had sensed something was important and had opened it with care, pulling out the sheath of papers inside and his mouth had dropped as his eyes filled with happy tears. Adora had officially adopted him. Now she was really his other mother. He knew that she would never leave them now.

That didn’t mean that he didn’t have anything to wish for though. A little brother would be kinda nice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Would anyone want to come back for a threequel called BROTHER?


End file.
